The present invention relates to printed circuit board manufacturing, and more particularly to removing scrap material at the edges of the printed circuit board remaining after the automated manufacturing process.
Printed circuit boards (PCBS) are typically manufactured using automated equipment. To accommodate the manufacturing process and to allow for PCBs of various shapes and sizes, PCBs are manufactured on panels of PCB substrates having a uniform size. The panels are sized larger than the PCBs to allow for a handling edge of scrap material surrounding the PCB that is removed in a last finishing step of the manufacturing process.
To aid in the manual removal of the scrap edges, the substrate panel may be scored at the boundary of the PCB on the substrate, the panel may be routed at the boundary of the PCB on the substrate, leaving break-away tabs allowing for removal of scrap edge pieces, or a combination of both techniques may be used.
Manual removal of the scrap edges is typically accomplished by grasping the panel, and grabbing the scrap material by hand or pliers and breaking it off of the panel. A problem with both these methods is that they don""t always provide a clean break where intended and components on the PCBs may be damaged.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tool to cleanly remove scrap edges while minimizing potential damage to PCB components.
The present invention is a PCB scrap edge removal tool comprising scrap removal jaws formed of two matching opposing pieces of metal having cut-outs in a crenellated fashion. The opposing scrap removal jaws have a gap between them for receiving a PCB work piece to be finished. Metal dowels for PCB positioning span the gap. A PCB is positioned in the gap and rocked back and forth to break off the scrap edge pieces. The cut-outs in the scrap removal jaws correspond to portions of the PCB edge that are not to be removed. These PCB portions move freely in the cut-outs as the PCB is rocked back and forth.